That kind of mounting assembly is in very widespread use when making distribution frames and subframes of the kind received in a cabinet. In general, two vertical support rails are provided having a plurality of mounting shelves mounted horizontally thereon. The mounting shelves are commonly referred to as strips, and they are of a practically standard length of 19 inches (″), hence the term 19″ strips.
In a very conventional embodiment, the mounting shelf or strip includes a vertical front plate that has windows cut out therein to receive electrical or optical connectors (generally for low voltage applications) either directly or indirectly.
The present invention relates more particularly to a mounting assembly that has connector supports fixed to the mounting shelf or strip. Thus, each connector support is fixed to the front plate at a reception window. The connector support can be fixed directly to the edges of a window, or in a variant the mounting shelf or strip can have special fixing means situated on the rear face of the front plate that is provided with the windows. Connector supports can be fixed to respective windows either from the front face of the front plate or from its rear face. Nevertheless, connector supports are generally fitted to the front face of the front plate and as a result they project horizontally from said front plate.
Such connector supports include specific receiver means adapted to receive some particular type of electrical or optical connector. Connectors are put into place in such connector supports from the rear face of the connector support so as to present the socket of the connector in the corresponding window formed by the mounting shelf or strip.
For the purposes of mounting and cabling electrical or optical connectors in such a mounting assembly, it is preferable for the mounting shelf or strip to be still disconnected from the vertical support rails. The connector supports can then be mounted on the mounting shelf or strip and the connection cables can be connected to the various connectors. Once the connectors have been cabled in this way they can be fitted to their respective connector supports, and the mounting shelf or strip as fitted in this way is finally fastened to the vertical support means.
It often happens that certain connectors need to be modified, added, or replaced for a variety of reasons associated, for example, with a new application or with equipment modernization. Under such circumstances, it is necessary to remove the mounting shelf or strip from its support rails in order to gain access to the connectors fitted into their respective connector supports from behind. Given that a standard 19″ strip has 24 connector support locations and can therefore support 24 single connector supports, it will readily be understood that removing a mounting shelf or strip from its support rails is relatively laborious, since traction needs to be applied to 24 connection cables, each generally comprising eight individual conductor wires.